The people were great, everything was easy and we had a wonderful time.

To sort of get up to speed on being in Turkey we spent the first few days in Istanbul doing all the standard tourist stuff including an all day trip up the Bosporous. Then we flew to Marmaris and picked up our Moorings 405 the next morning. Part of the day was spent provisioning since Moorings doesn't provide the same service here that they do in the Caribbean. We just got enough to get us started and then did more shopping as we went along. Actually, our shopping adventures in little out of the way places was part of the fun of the trip. Finally, in the middle of the afternoon, we were on our way to Kumlu Buku just outside the harbor entrance where we spent the first night.

For the next couple days we sailed eastward frequently consulting "The Cruising Guide to the Turquoise Coasts of Turkey" by Marcia Davock, which was our main source of information about things to see and do. The evening spent anchored behind Gimler Island near Olu Deniz was especially notable. The little island itself is a wonderland. From a distance it seems to be mostly covered with scrubby bushes and small trees. Closer up you realize that the entire island is one single ruin. There are thousands of buildings, one on top of another, all broken down, mostly without roofs. Here and there arches were left standing that provided ideal frames for photos of the sea and the neighboring coastal mountains.

The real fun was to come later that evening. A young man had motored out from the mainland about a half mile away to help us anchor and we agreed that he could pick us up for dinner. We were getting worried when he finally showed up at about 8:00 PM. There weren't many lights on the beach and we wondered where we might be headed. Imagine our surprise when he pulled the boat up on the beach beside a candle lit table right on the sand with nothing else around, but clearly waiting for us. His little brother filled our water glasses while he took our order for appetizers and his older brother played wonderful Turkish melodies on a violin. The wine we ordered could have been a few degrees cooler, but hey, we know how to rough it! Dinner was a shish kabob cooked over an open fire down the beach behind some big rocks. The cook was the same young man who seemed to be doing everything else. An older man (maybe it was his father) wandered up and started sing to the music and when the meal was winding down he invited the women (and the men too) to dance with him. It must have been after midnight when the same young man who had done everything else motored us back to the boat.

The next day was a long haul down the "Seven Capes" and around the corner to the picturesque little Greek island of Kastellarizon that is tucked up against the Turkish coast just off the town of Kas. Knowing that the Greeks and Turks don't always get along so well, we wouldn't have dreamed of stopping there if the manager at Moorings hadn't suggested it. He even provided a Greek courtesy flag for us to hoist when entering the harbor. This was another of those great experiences. The owner of the main restaurant waved us in to a stern tie right at his doorstep and then set up a table of welcoming drinks on the dock at the foot of our gangway while we were still getting our lines sorted out. Needless to say we had dinner there that night.

The next day an easy morning's sail brought us to Kekova Adasi, the most eastern point of our trip. This is another island covered with ruins, some of which go right down into the sea. These can be viewed by motoring slowly along the shore but diving is forbidden because they don't want people digging around for artifacts. A beautiful big sound opens out behind the island and the isolated village of Kale Koyu lies on the mainland side just below the impressive ruins of a medieval castle. Nearby is the opening into another protected inland bay and Ucagiz village. We spent a couple days in this region before heading back.

We had lots of other adventures, but maybe that is enough to give you a feeling for what it was like. We did have some excitement when the wind picked up a bit and blew us back into Kastellarizon one afternoon. The next day we ended up fighting our way northward along the relatively exposed "Seven Capes" region through waves that were 6'-7' high at times. Finally, let me mention that language was not a problem. A lot of people spoke English and the others appreciated our feeble attempts at Turkish and were so good-natured that we could work things out with sign language. For talking with other cruisers we found that our ability to speak some German came in very handy!